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Lowell engineering, manufacturing firm to lay off 300; close within year

By Grant Welker, gwelker@lowellsun.com

Updated:
11/05/2014 05:54:32 PM EST

LOWELL -- About 300 workers were told Wednesday they will be laid off from the Cobham engineering and manufacturing facility as the company shifts Lowell's operations to other centers.

The facility is slated to close by November 2015, but the company will begin transferring operations to other Cobham facilities immediately, said Greg Alan Caires, the company's vice president for external relations.

The nearest similar facility among the 20 or so Cobham facilities in the United States is in Exeter, N.H., which may be able to absorb some workers from the Lowell plant, Caires said.

"Cobham made this decision after careful consideration of alternative courses of action," the company said in a statement. "Ultimately, this decision was made in large part because the Lowell site has been experiencing a decline in business recently, with no indication that this will improve."

Cobham's facility is at the former M/A-Com space on Pawtucket Boulevard. The facility created electronic parts for the U.S. military and its allies for use in defense communication devices including satellites.

The schedule for layoffs has not yet been determined, Caires said.

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Cobham alerted employees of the layoffs now in order to adhere to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act, which requires a 60-day notice for employers with more than 100 workers.

City Manager Kevin Murphy said the city will be working hard to fill the space Cobham will vacate, and the Career Center of Lowell will help laid-off workers find new employment.

"We've worked with them to try helping them out, but obviously it is an economic decision from their parent company, their corporate offices," he said.

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